Entrepreneur Program

What is an Entrepreneurial Grant?

The San Diego SEED Entrepreneurship Program provides economic self-sufficiency and stability among refugee and new immigrant communities. While many immigrants/refugees have the intelligence, work ethic, and skill sets needed to succeed, their language barriers and lack of formal qualifications make it difficult to secure jobs in higher-paying industries. Lack of/or disrupted education due to poverty, warfare, gender, social, and cultural norms are common. Other challenges include lack of financial or social capital.

The San Diego SEED Entrepreneurship Program has been selected for funding through the State’s SEED Program. A grant award of $1 million has been awarded to the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition (SDRCC), in partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) of which $750,000 is allocated for micro-grants to be distributed to entrepreneurs.

License to Freedom is honored to be one of the organizations selected for funding.

What is our Purpose?

• Support program delivery to at least 180 immigrant/ refugee participants (9 simultaneous cohorts with approximately 20 entrepreneurs each). These cohorts will receive linguistically and culturally tailored entrepreneurial training, technical assistance and coaching, assistance to access micro-grant awards.

• Business Coaches hired by the ECBOs will support entrepreneurs as they take steps towards creating or expanding their businesses. Our coaches will facilitate future success by connecting the entrepreneurs with resources to build skills and confidence and increase chances of business success.

• Provide coordination support to SDRCC member organizations including meetings to plan and prepare for startup, execution of MOUs, development of job description for the Business Coach, participation in the hiring process, delivery of pre-service trainings on topics like confidentiality, professional ethics and boundaries, best practices in group facilitation etc. We will create a system to track performance metrics and work with each partner to determine how, where, and when they will deliver their training and what resources are needed.

• Deliver program evaluation that includes a formative evaluation to help us understand what about the project worked and what didn’t, track progress in meeting performance measurement - did we deliver the program as we intended, what were our outputs. We also want to be able to collect and understand the outcomes that were achieved in terms of changes in knowledge, skill and attitude of the participants (short-term) as well as the longer-term outcomes relating to small business development and success.

What is our Role?

License to Freedom (LTF) has offered culturally and linguistically appropriate services to Middle Eastern communities since 2004. While founded with a focus on domestic violence the organization now offers a more comprehensive array of services that support the overall wellbeing and self-sufficiency of families and individuals. LTF addresses health equity through hiring staff who are bilingual and have lived experience as refugees, immigrants, survivors of domestic violence and personal history of behavioral health struggles and recovery. Staff provide services through a health equity lens, focusing on building resiliency and increasing access to needed resources. Current services include mental health services including COVID-19 crisis counseling; legal support: youth development and mentoring: and case management and advocacy.

LTF is a founding member of the SDRCC. Established in September 2019, SDRCC brings together 11 ECBOs to lead coordinated action to ensure that individuals and families from refugee communities throughout San Diego County are healthy, safe, and thriving. Since March 2020, SDRCC has expanded the reach and capacity of all member organizations securing contracts with County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency, California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) and building a peer-based workforce of more than 50 individuals. LTF has evolved over the years to respond to the changing needs of the community, a key accomplishment has been the development of contractual partnerships with multiple mainstream organizations including County of San Diego Probation Department, San Diego Volunteer Lawyers, Access Inc., San Diego State University and Grossmont Union School District.